562 PRACTICE OF PHYSIC. 



ganization of the brain immediately necessary to the action of 

 that principle. 



The second, or the indirect causes of death, are those which 

 interrupt such functions as are necessary to the circulation of the 

 blood, and thereby necessary to the due continuance and sup- 

 port of the vital principle. 



CI. Of these general causes, those which operate more parti- 

 cularly in fevers seem to be 



First, The violence of reaction, which either, by repeated 

 violent excitements, destroys the vital power itself, or, by its vio- 

 lence, destroys the organization of the brain necessary to the 

 action of that power ; or, by the same violence, destroys the or- 

 ganization of the parts more immediately necessary to the circu- 

 lation of the blood. 



Secondly, The cause of death in fevers may be a poison, that 

 is, a power capable of destroying the vital principle ; and this 

 poison may be either the miasma or contagion which was the 

 remote cause of the fever ; or it may be a putrid matter gene- 

 rated in the course of the fever. In both cases, the operation 

 of such a power appears either as acting chiefly on the nervous 

 system, inducing the symptoms of debility, or as acting 

 upon the fluids of the body, inducing a putrescent state in 

 them. 



CII. From all this it appears, that the symptoms shewing the 

 tendency to death in fevers, may be discovered by their being 

 either the symptoms 



Of violent reaction, 



Of great debility, 



Or of a strong tendency to putrefaction in the fluids. 



And upon this supposition I proceed now to mark those 

 symptoms more particularly. 



GUI. The symptoms which denote the violence of reaction, 

 are, 1. The increased force, hardness, and frequency of the 

 pulse. 2. The increased heat of the body. 3. The symptoms 

 which are the marks of a general inflammatory diathesis, and 

 more especially of a particular determination to the brain, lungs, 

 or other important viscera. 4. The symptoms which are the 

 marks of the cause of violent reaction ; that is, of a strong sti- 



